American Idol Results Show Cut to Half an Hour

Fox has announced their 2014 premiere dates for returning shows including American Idol and The Following as well as the premiere dates for new series Rake and Enlisted. The network also confirmed a big switch-up’s in store for American Idol when it returns – and not just the debut of a new judging panel. This season of AI will reduce its elimination episodes from one hour to just a 30 minute broadcast (8-8:30pm) and the new series Surviving Jack will air in the prime spot right after AI‘s elimination episodes at 8:30pm.

The Following will return for season two beginning Monday, January 20, 2014 at 9pm ET/PT. Fox will air the dramatic thriller starring Kevin Bacon for 15 weeks without any interruptions. Season two will find Ryan Hardy (Bacon) suspicious that Joe Carroll (James Purefoy) isn’t dead. The cast also includes Shawn Ashmore, Valorie Curry, Connie Nielsen, Jessica Stroup, Sam Underwood, and Tiffany Boone.

Greg Kinnear leads the cast of Rake which is set to premiere with a two-night event on Sunday, January 19, 2014 at 10pm and Thursday, January 23 at 9pm. Kinnear stars as “a brilliant and frustratingly charming criminal defense attorney, whose chaotic and self-destructive personal life often gets in the way of his professional one.”

Also set to debut in January 2014 is Enlisted with Geoff Stults, Chris Lowell, and Parker Young. The new comedy will premiere on Friday, January 10, 2014 at 9:30pm. The show is a “single-camera comedy about an older sibling who returns home to reconnect with his two brothers and lead a group of misfits on a small Florida Army post.”

Surviving Jack will air on Thursdays at 8:30pm (date to be determined) for eight weeks after American Idol. Surviving Jack‘s set in the ’90s and stars Christopher Meloni and Connor Buckley. The series follows a man (Meloni) becoming a dad, as his son (Buckley) becomes a man, in a time before “coming of age” was something you could Google.

The new comedy series Us & Them is also coming to Fox’s primetime schedule next spring. Starring Jason Ritter and Alexis Bledel, Us & Them is about “a young couple whose path to happily-ever-after is complicated by the screwed-up circus of people closest to them.”

Journalist covering the entertainment industry for 18+ years, including 13 years as the first writer for About.com's Hollywood Movies site. Member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association, Alliance of Women Film Journalists, and President of the San Diego Film Critics Society.